I already did it Benson, and also received spirit money, this game became more interesting,it was fun though,i really like it :))

Wow, thank you very much ….

I have exchanged my bracket’s spirit animal to my spirit money, thank you Health Month ….
I really like it.

Yes, I already recieved my spirit money too, thank you Health Month ….

i did it and like the idea of spirit money, just wondering where it will lead …

i’m torn on the idea of spirit currency. I too am curious where this will lead. I did answer the questions… curious.

Buster-I like the idea and answered the questions. There’s a page in there that has some awkward phrasing (as in, “somewhere around here somewhere”) that you might reexamine, but having a “fireside chat” with your spirit animal is a cute idea. It’s like touching base with your coach when the month is through. Nice way to have players reflect on their progress.

Speaking of which-are there ways in which players can encourage each other? There would be several ways to do this, of course, but you could have an “inspiration station,” or a space for friends to leave advice for one another. I don’t know what kind of social network muddle that might lead to, however, and perhaps that’s not a direction you want to examine…but thought I’d throw it out there.

Thanks! I really enjoy playing Health Month.

Nice….thanks Buster. Keep the improvisation alive…:)

It would be nice if there was a back button on the interview. I went too fast and wanted to make one small correction to what I had previously answered.

I second Seán’s comment there… I did want to be able to go back & edit after the interview was over.

I second Seán’s comment there… I did want to be able to go back & edit after the interview was over.

I like all these new ideas to evolve month-after-month the HM-experience

im interesting in … will keep catch up :)

I’m interested!

I’m definitely interested! That sounds awesome :)

I’m interested.

Hi Buster – thanks for sponsoring me this month :D I’d be happy to blog for you – I’ve been loving Health Month so far and I work in fitness so I think this is a great tool to build healthy habits. Cheers! Chase

Cool… this is a great start. So, I’m still trying to figure out exactly how to do it. What would make it most useful for you? To post on the health month blog, or to post on the game wall, or to post on your own blogs? I’m leaning towards the latter, but also want to have a way to feature those posts when they’re made on the site. Maybe I’ll just need to round them up every couple days and post links to your blogs. What do you think?

Of course, I’m interested.
I’m using the “Review of the day”, by writing in a sentence or two about the day.
I’ll try to use it more deeply, with something more useful…

That sounds a good idea Benson, i’m interested to share my personal experience in using health month to others, i think it would be have more benefit if could be featured on the health month blog which everybody could read and learn from others experience, i’m looking forward to the opportunity given by you. thank you

i’ll play. one more motivation in the pocket…

I imagine individual blogs (but within healthmonth, right?) posting to the gamewall or to a blog is one & the same to me. Whatever works best for you, & like Riccardo, I’m using the “review the day” blank for a bit of a summary — maybe an additional box there for public consumption/blog entry??

I’m up for it! I’ve been sharing my experiences with people and telling them about the game.

Links to our own blogs is a nice perk/reward for us taking the time to blog. I personally would also be willing to guest post on the HM blog.

I’d love to do this. I try to blog about it anyway, but this would be greater motivation to follow my rules and complete 750words each day!

wave I’m not sure what amount of text we’re talking about here, but if you thinks along the lines of the short day report in the game turn, I’d like to join! :)

interested depending on what you’re looking for.

i’m interested

hei buster would you sponsoring me for the game next month?

i am interested – i have loved my 1st month experience and have been spreading the word at least through emails (and mentioned healthmonth in part of reverb10 posts!). thanks for considering this!

EOM could be more of an event/experience. A closing/thankful ceremony. Have a list showing your personal notes (gratefuls, reviews). Also show/email a reminder of your Bets.

Yes, this is exactly the direction I’m interested in going. Complete the chapter with some kind of narrative. I’ve got a plan to involve the spirit animals and such. I like the idea of turning it into a mini-ceremony…

Well, there’s already the wall of AWESOME (although it’s not all-caps… you might want to consider changing it to all-caps. you’re welcome.).
I love the idea of an accrual of some sort of long-range pointage for overall days that you log. However, that might be discouraging for people who are just starting out and will never achieve the long-range pointage that, say, someone like ME could earn. ;-)
I do like the idea of adding some sort of bonus thing for additional months… maybe more badges? Or different types of badges for # of days sustained without doing a single thing, kind of like AA has for their chips? It might be cool to have the “30 day streak of not drinking” or “15 day streak of not smoking,” since some of these commitments are pretty huge.
I’d also love to have some sort of badge buttons in real life, like girl scout badges. But maybe that’s just me being a dork. I just like the idea of having people know that I went a month without drinking or went a whole month without fried food. Especially in my circles, that’s pretty freakin’ wild. (I know, I know… we have other issues). Maybe once you passed that milestone, you would have the ability to buy that item for a nominal fee (not like $15/button, but like $2). Yay! E-commerce!
I really appreciate Health Month, Buster. For a fun and lightweight game, it’s possible to make some pretty significant improvements to one’s health…. great work! :-)

An idea I had, to incorporate previous months with the current month, would be to recognize rules that were missed in past months (maybe even more than one past month), but done perfectly in the current month, and give some sort of extra bonus (special badge maybe?) for challenging yourself with something that was previously out of reach, and succeeding in meeting that challenge.

Month to month streaks would be great … and even recognition, in some form, for moving to harder brackets, or always meeting certain goals .. I guess just any of that long term analytical stuff would be cool – seeing how you started with run 2 miles a week, and have gone to 5 .. seeing how you get better at harder rules over time .. all that stuff :)

Mostly, just keep doing what you are doing! I’m still pretty new, but really enjoying it; Thanks!

It’s so easy to finish the month in the positive that the end of month seems anti-climatic. Last month I figured I could blow off the last couple days with no consequence.

Something that really made it necessary to stick it to the end would be cool.

one item is how the streaks don’t carry over. I quit smoking and drinking with the help of health month and I think it would be great motivation to see those streaks carry on. something like “7 weeks of following your gym rules! You rule the gym!” to make the pixels mean a bit more.

Zakk – that’s it. It all ends at the end of the month and NOTHING carries over.

it’s gonna be ultimate experience and satisfying work of completeness if i could earned badge based on my rules, u can imagine how hard i have to remember all that rules that i have been taking, to logically implies in my daily basis habit. To have more interesting for the groups, i would suggest to insert more jokes or maybe give us advice in order to achieve our rules more beneficial for us, or maybe you can comment in our wall and say what we were doing was right or not complete. Thank You

Mark a rule as “sticky” so it carries over from one month to the next. Keep counting the streak data for these sticky rules?

i like Danielle’s idea about the “long-range pointage” thing. other the months i’ve added more and more rules and the ones i began with (like limiting caffeine intake) have become easier and easier and i break that rule much less now. i’m sure it’s the same case for a lot of other users. it’s just kind of nice to be somehow acknowledged for making a permanent change in your life like that.

i also like Peter’s idea about making rules “sticky” because even though they’ve become more natural, some of us like to keep those rules every month because it make us feel “more in control” and it kind of “binds” us to prevent relapsing. :)

i love this site!

Some of the pop up windows aren’t working on the iPhone :(

I like Peters sticky rule idea!!!

OK clearly Danielle is right about the CAPS. But now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, I am LOVING everyone’s ideas. I say bring the phoenix badge, etc. on over to this site, too, Buster. If I go ___ days/weeks without stepping out on a rule, I’d like some sweet badge love! Also, maybe a badge for achieving your weight loss/gain goal (obviously in order to make that make sense you’d have to include current weight/goal weight/BMI prompts on the initial monthly planning & promising page)

Hi, Buster. I e-mailed you last month already and others have mentioned something similar here, so i just wanted to reiterate how much I’d LOVE the ability to have rules carry over for the next month. I have certain rules with notes that I want to be able to just re-select for the next month. I’d also like to be able to see over the course of a year how I did, and which months tripped me up like months with holidays, birthdays, vacation, etc. I figured we’re going for wholesale lifestyle changes and not just month-long changes, right? :)

ADDITIONALLY, as far as Teams go, it would be great if they were set-up more to be based on average team points per person (or something like that). That way teams with a small number of players could still compete with a team that has a large number of players. I feel that it would be a great way to build camaraderie amongst the team if there were a prize offered to the top team (or top 3). I’m sure we would work even harder together to motivate and encourage each other on.

FINALLY, maybe there could be a system for cashing in your individual/team points for healthy rewards like a free gym membership, free protein bars, gift cards to a bookstore or movie theater, etc. It could possibly mirror the DailyFeats system, but with a focused emphasis on healthy products and/or healthy living.

It does currently seem a little anti-climatic at the end of the month. I would like some kind of points rolling system regarding how much fruit, life points, etc. you have at the end of the month (since they currently just disappear forever).
Agree with the comments regarding “rewarding” the top teams and fostering more team-community & team-competition.
Also, a cumulative analytics page about your adherence to rules and types of rules over your complete time in the game would be helpful. Again, instead of everything just re-starting for the month. And obviously, that data is stored since you can see it for the individual previous months.
And yeah, outside of the 4sq badges (that I love), maybe your own badge system. Make Healthmonth more independent and foster the idea that it can stand on it’s own—it’s great in its own right!

And last, but not least: KUDOS TO YOU!!! <3

I noticed someone mention sticky rules. I too was wanting that. When I was setting up December’s rules, I thought, can’t I just say “same rules as last month” and then edit from there? Having to go find all my rules again from scratch was a bit of bummer.

I also love all the suggestions for some kind of carry-over from month to month. Otherwise it kind of feels like the month before never happened. Like a short-lived fling.

Overall, loving it though!